Thread by @rjnestor

I've been grappling with something two of my clients—who collaborate together—said during a coaching a few weeks back. "Writing for a collaborator is great, because it has to be clear—and writing for your future self in a Zettelkasten has to be just as clear." 👇 🧵 1/

A Zettelkasten (henceforth "ZK") is a system to take in knowledge, develop it, connect, combine and compound it, and publish it in some form. The mechanism for processing the knowledge is a conversation with your ZK—effectively a conversation with your past and future selves. 2/

For years, I've coached that productivity is communicating with yourself. Leaders and colleagues recognize that clear communication is central to effective collaboration, but we are almost NEVER clear with our future selves. And that keeps us from getting important stuff done! 3/

And I've learned from @tracyplaces that journaling (esp. in @RoamResearch) is ALSO communicating with our past and future selves. By responding to prompts and reviewing what we write, our past selves can teach our current selves and we can improve our future selves. 4/

It clicked for me today that ZK, productivity, and journaling for personal/professional development are ALL forms of communicating with yourself. Which led me to wonder: is the axiom that "writing is thinking" really just a specific instance of "communication is thinking"? 5/

As a society—and here perhaps I leave solid ground—our great leaps have been prompted by improvements in communication across time and space (and enhancements in the SPEED of communication): e.g., written language, the printing press, the computer age. 6/

Are our own individual advancements also dependent on the width, breadth, and pace of our communication with ourselves? Our knowledge and output (ZK or other), our accomplishments (productivity), our personal growth (journaling)? 7/

To be clear, I don't mean to suggest that writing ISN'T thinking. Writing—and specifically iterating through multiple drafts—is a tried and true way to ensure that our communication with ourselves and others IS clear. 8/

But it is the communication act itself, that need to express and process what we're experiencing, that drives ZK, productivity, journaling, and perhaps most EVERYTHING. And whether we're collaborating with others or collaborating with ourselves, we must embrace that. 9/

Experience fully + react instinctively + engage passionately + respond intentionally = communicate effectively. And when you communicate effectively, both with those around you and ESPECIALLY with yourself, you'll make good, important, significant things happen. 10/